The Japanese Biometrics Market

Japan is located to the East of the Korean peninsula with a total population of a little over 127 million as of 2009. The services sector contributes 75 percent to the country's GDP with the industry sector contributing 23 percent. The industrial sector is highly dependent on the import of raw materials. Some of the major countries that Japan imports from are China, the United States, and Saudi Arabia.

Japan is also known for having one of the world's largest fishing fleets. Automobiles, consumer electronics, iron and steel are some of the country's key exports. Many of the world's top automobile and electronics giants have their home base in Japan. Some of them include Toyota Motor Corporation, Honda Motor Co., Ltd., Suzuki Motor Corporation, Sony Corporation, Hitachi Limited and so on.

Till the early nineties, many organizations in the country were part of a Keiretsu which was a conglomerate of companies with an inter-business relationship and share holding patterns. At the basic level, the Keiretsu would comprise of a single central bank, which would come to the monetary aid of any of the member companies. As a result, the bank would have a certain control over these organizations. The Keiretsu prevented any type of hostile take over within the member communities. This system had slowly started to diminish in the early nineties when the Japanese recession adversely affected many of the large banks, especially those that were part of the Keiretsu. Eventually, the Keiretsu system was phased out over the years through growths in corporate acquisitions.